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“It answers the needs and concerns of our members, and it appears on the surface to be a great victory for the Boeing Company and the IAM,” he said. “However, there is one very serious flaw that cannot go unaddressed, and that is the company’s insistence to remove the pension plan for any new hires from this day forward.”

This would put a divide between current and future workers but also jeopardize the funding of the plan for current and past employees, Buffenbarger said. He noted that other companies, including TWA, moved from cutting off new hires to freezing pension plans to terminating them, moving plans to insurance companies and cutting off the company’s obligation.

“We see what’s coming,” Buffenbarger said. “We see a Boeing Company who you have made very profitable and very successful take a step to abandon the employees, not just the new hires. This is a slow process on a long road to even abandon past retirees and the current workforce.”

Boeing, meanwhile, posted a message Thursday from Steve Jacques, vice president of Boeing Defense, Space & Security Manufacturing, and Steve Gill, director of St. Louis Shared Services Group Site Services.

“The company made some adjustments to the Best and Final Offer to help address some of the issues you told us were important to you and your families,” they wrote.

In another message on Friday, the company wrote: “The 55-month contract includes $44,400 in additional total wages including general wage increases, Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA), a lump sum payment and annual Production Performance Sharing Plan payments. The contract also offers industry-leading health care, insurance and retirement benefits including an $81/month pension benefit.”

Finally, Boeing posted a question and answer sheet about its pension proposal, noting that the only change for current employees in an increase in the pension multiplier for current employees from $70 per month for each year of service to $81 per month

“The company has no intention to, nor can it legally, eliminate or reduce the pension multiplier for past service pension benefits for current employees now or in the future,” Boeing said.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.